I've been using the wrong tip on my soldering iron for years without knowing

I was fixing a Nintendo Switch yesterday and kept burning the tiny pads on the board, which never happens to me. After about an hour of messing up, I looked at my iron and realized I'd been using a big chisel tip for all my fine work. I switched to a pointed tip I had in my kit and it was like night and day, the joints were clean in seconds. I guess I just got used to fighting the old tip and thought that was normal. Has anyone else had a moment like that where a simple tool change fixed a long running problem?

3 comments

3 Comments

tarahart3mo ago

Honestly, I did this with a bad pair of tweezers for way too long. My hands would cramp up trying to grab tiny screws, and I just thought I had weak fingers or something. Bought a decent pair on a whim and my whole life changed. I looked back at my old bent ones and felt like a total fool for not figuring it out sooner.

avery_roberts672mo ago

Cramping hands from bad tools is the worst, I've been there too with my old screwdrivers.

taylor_garcia3mo ago

Got used to fighting the old tip" is the real story here. I did the same thing with a dull box cutter for like a year, just putting my whole body weight into opening packages. My roommate saw me once and just handed me a fresh blade. I felt like a caveman who just discovered the wheel.